Donald Trump launched into a vitriolic assault against Adam Schiff and the media while speaking at an official press conference alongside Sauli Niinistö on Wednesday.
His remarks came on the heels of a similarly wild exchange with reporters during an earlier sit down with the Finnish President.
Trump is in a state of extreme agitation that we imagine even some Republicans would agree borders on psychosis. He was exceptionally perturbed about a New York Times article which reveals that Schiff was given an early warning as to the contents of the whistle-blower complaint at the heart of the impeachment probe. To wit, from the Times:
The Democratic head of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, learned about the outlines of a C.I.A. officer’s concerns that President Trump had abused his power days before the officer filed a whistle-blower complaint, according to a spokesman and current and former American officials.
The early account by the future whistle-blower shows how determined he was to make known his allegations that Mr. Trump asked Ukraine’s government to interfere on his behalf in the 2020 election. It also explains how Mr. Schiff knew to press for the complaint when the Trump administration initially blocked lawmakers from seeing it.
Apparently, the whistle-blower was worried that his allegations of potential wrongdoing by the president weren’t being handled expeditiously, so he approached an aide for the House committee, who told him to get a lawyer and file the complaint.
That advice was in keeping with the committee’s procedures. The whistle-blower’s name was not communicated to Schiff, and neither were the specifics of the allegations.
“Like other whistle-blowers have done before and since under Republican and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistle-blower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community”, a spokesman for Schiff said.
Trump, of course, sees this as evidence of an even deeper conspiracy, something he made abundantly clear during Wednesday’s press conference which featured the following mind-boggling rant:
“It shows that Schiff is a fraud”, Trump said, holding up a copy of the article. “He knew long before – and he helped write it too”, the president said, without providing any evidence to support that accusation.
Trump then openly accused Schiff of “treason” in front of a foreign leader:
Asked to explain on his repeated use of the word “treason” when referring not just to Schiff, but to anyone and everyone who he imagines might be involved in investigating alleged wrongdoing by the White House, Trump elaborated, and ultimately ended up calling himself a “very stable genius” again.
“There are those who think I’m a very stable genius”, he said. “I watch my words very, very closely”. That’s a joke that usually elicits some giggles. This time, the laughs were sparse, in keeping with the somber mood in Washington.
Trump then expanded on Rudy Giuliani’s threats to “sue The Swamp“.
“Just so you know, we’ve been investigating on a personal basis corruption in the 2016 election”, Trump warned. “I probably will be bringing a lot of litigation against a lot of people”.
Trump’s new allegations against Schiff were overshadowed by the rest of the press conference, during which he berated reporters and talked over Niinistö, who at one juncture looked at his American counterpart and said “The question was for me”.
The president abruptly ended the embarrassing proceedings with an anti-press screed. “We would be a far greater nation if we didn’t have the CNNs of the world who are corrupt people”, the president said.
He then thanked everyone and walked out of the room.
I think the Italians have a term for this: opera buffa.
I don’t get it. I was told by Trump and Nancy Pelosi that Trump wanted to be impeached.